Netflix Orders New Original Series on Pablo Escobar from ‘Robocop’ Director Jose Padilha

Netflix is going after the drugs in its latest original series. Wagner Moura — Brazil’s top film star according to Netflix — will play drug trafficker and politician Pablo Escobar in the original series, “Narcos,” from Jose Padilha and Gaumont International Television.

The series will reunite Padilha and Moura who teamed up before on “Elite Squad,” a Brazilian action and political film that was followed by a sequel titled “The Enemy Within.” Indiewire’s Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn wasn’t too hot on the sequel, saying it “has less success than the first installment […] but still keeps the snazzy combination of spectacle and polemics in check.”

The series will be executive produced by Padilha, Eric Newman (“Children of Men”), Chris Brancato (“Hannibal”), and the team of Doug Miro and Carlos Bernard. Shooting is scheduled to begin soon in Colombia before premiering in all Netflix territories in early 2015.

“Jose and Wagner together created one of the most sophisticated and chilling portraits of criminality and official corruption ever in their ‘Elite Squad’ movies,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “Their version of the Escobar saga will be like nothing ever seen before.”

Padilha said, “Our idea is to tell
the true story of how cocaine became such a huge problem in the U.S. and Europe — and how it all started here in Medellin.”